Corbis Corp. v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance

MEMORANDUM **

In this diversity case, Corbis Corp. appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment to St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co. and its concomitant denial of Corbis’s own motion for partial summary judgment. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review de novo both the grant and the denial of summary judgment, see Padfield v. AIG Life Ins. Co., 290 F.3d 1121, 1124 (9th Cir.2002), and we affirm.

I

As the facts are known to the parties, we do not recite them here except as necessary to our disposition. Corbis argues that St. Paul was obligated to provide its legal defense in two lawsuits brought against it by third parties. Under Wash *794 ington law, an insurer has a duty to provide a legal defense for its insured whenever “a complaint against the insured, construed liberally, alleges facts which could, if proven, impose liability upon the insured within the policy’s coverage.” Truck Ins. Exch. v. Vanport Homes, Inc., 147 Wash.2d 751 , 58 P.3d 276, 281-82 (2002). The insurer may deny the defense “[o]nly if the alleged claim is clearly not covered by the policy,” id. at 282 , and may not rely on facts extrinsic to the complaint to deny a defense,…